


The Grid

by CreamMoon



Series: Bottom Arthur Fest 2017 [5]
Category: Merlin (TV), Tron (1982)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Anal Fingering, Bottom Arthur, Bottom Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), M/M, Masturbation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 08:32:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11032491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreamMoon/pseuds/CreamMoon
Summary: First: Arthur Pendragon, the obnoxious idiot son of the CEO (and incidentally Merlin's manager), was lasered into the computer network by Dr. Guinevere Plover's invention.Second: not five minutes later Merlin did this to himself on purpose after the developmental A.I. Uther had invested boatloads of money into started going on about obtaining missile codes from the Pentagon.There was nothing for it, he couldn't just LEAVE the obnoxious heir of Penn Computing stuck inside a machine as a hostage. (And he really shouldn't let the N.I.M. possibly violate whatever international laws stealing missile codes fell under, but first he had to get his boss.)





	The Grid

**Author's Note:**

> WELP. This is the first of three prompts that I had half done during Bottom Arthur Week 2017 but didn't get done in time to post during the fest.

Merlin's wildest dreams couldn't have predicted the way his day was going. He thought all he'd have to worry about was trouble shooting the problem that some rogue programmer had drummed up, installing some homebrew security program onto the office server set. The CEO had been furious, sending his aggravating underling Geoffrey to shout at Merlin and his floor mates about the issue. Apparently some very important things had been deleted, others quarantined.

But this... this went beyond all that.

First: Arthur Pendragon, the obnoxious idiot son of the CEO (and incidentally Merlin's manager), was lasered into the computer network by Dr. Guinevere Plover's invention.

Second: not five minutes later Merlin did this to himself on purpose after the developmental A.I. Uther had invested boatloads of money into started going on about obtaining missile codes from the Pentagon.

There was nothing for it, he couldn't just LEAVE the obnoxious heir of Penn Computing stuck inside a machine as a hostage. (And he really shouldn't let the N.I.M. possibly violate whatever international laws stealing missile codes fell under, but first he had to get his boss.)

Unexpectedly things twisted around so he was roped into some bizarre gladiatorial sort of slavery, fighting in a pit with discus-like weapons as people- no, programs! -strutted around in form fitting suits with blazing circuit patterns, most circuits in reds and orange. They contrasted greatly with his own cerulean blue and the other prisoners he'd glimpsed before being tossed into the empty cell quadrant, Merlin curling up and wracking his brain for ideas of how to get out of this situation. How would he find Arthur?

What the next few minutes yielded made him think perhaps he wouldn't have to look far, the man that was thrown into the cell beside him yelling and fighting the guards sounding and looking very much like who he needed to find. "Arthur!!"

The man turned and looked at him in confusion, the two hulking red circuited guards dropping him to the floor and slamming the cell door shut behind them. Immediately Arthur lunged forward, slamming against the unseen partition between the cells that Merlin had unfortunately fell back against when he was tossed inside, the other man hissing at the zap he got for his trouble.

"You're all right!" Merlin was stunned by the response he'd garnered, brow furrowing deeply as he looked over the man in the other cell again. His circuits were gold... and they matched his eyes.

"... you're... not Arthur." Merlin murmured, slowly standing up and crossing the floor, bracketing the electrified partition with his hands against the walls as he eyed the program. "Just who _are_ you?"

Shockingly the program looked fit to cry at the response, the poor thing sagging against the adjacent wall in despair. "I thought... Oh GON-5 give me strength..."

GON-5?

"Are you all right?"

Seemingly coming back to himself the program looked embarrassed, the circuits suddenly flushing in spots to a greenish color before it all ebbed back to that bright gold. "I'm sorry... I thought you were someone else. I'm KING... and you are?"

Brow furrowing instantly at the name he stared down the program. "You're the Security Program that was ghosted onto our servers."

KING looked suddenly more guarded than before, tone turning to venom a moment later. "So you're just one of the N.I.M.'s programs that fell out of favor."

"I'm not a program at all." Merlin shot back, frowning at him. "My name's Merlin. I'm looking for a man named Arthur. He looks exactly like you."

"...a man?" The word seemed to completely baffle the program, Merlin slapping a hand over his face in frustration, trying to come up with a better word.

"A... oh, you know!" Groaning he gestured vaguely to himself. "A... a User!"

KING's eyes went as wide as saucers at the word. "You're... you're...?"

"A User." Merlin repeated, catching on to his understanding with ease. "I'm a User and I'm looking for another one. Named Arthur."

Suddenly the program was on his knees, head bowed. Merlin stared down at him, bemused. "... what... are you doing?"

"You're a User! Even if you are not my own, any User that would speak to a program is a blessing! A boon! You are honoring me..."

There was no way Merlin could possibly wrap his head around this right now. He was already too overwhelmed by the fact that he'd gotten himself purposefully into this, let alone having to figure out how he was going to get out of it... "L-Look. There's no time for that. I'm just as trapped as you here, and I need to figure a way out. I have to get Arthur and then go back home."

Looking up again KING looked vaguely perplexed but not as upset as Merlin thought one might be at the notion your being of worship being as bad off as you. "Surely there is hope. If the N.I.M. has disabled you and this... Arthur in this way perhaps another User will lend aid. Surely they will notice something is amiss."

Merlin rubbed his hands over his face, sighing heavily. If only he could have optimism when he knew the state of things outside. Guinevere likely had no idea how to help him if she could, all she was preparing to do was figure out to remove them both at Merlin's behest, seeing as they had no idea what would go on after lasering was completed. She'd only experimented with oranges before this, never something so large nor complex...

Taking a deep breath in he paced, willing his mind to work as KING settled down in his cell, the program idly spinning his Identity Disc as he watched the User move around.

What felt like an hour passed and Merlin was no closer to any answer, frustration hitting it's peak and making him lash out, his fist slamming into the cell door. "Just open won't you!?"

Suddenly the door shimmered; the lines that spidered out originating from where his knuckles touched, and slid open, leaving Merlin gaping like a fish out of water.

KING made a shocked noise behind him, the sound of him scrambling up clear even as Merlin's mind was clambering to understand what he'd just done. "Oh Merlin! You really are a User!!"

Coming to his senses Merlin poked his head out of the cell, checking for the guards that would undoubtedly still be somewhere on patrol. Finding the coast clear he hurried out and to KING's cell door, pursing his lips and squinching his eyes a bit as he tried to replicate what he'd done, pushing both palms up against the door. "...open."

It was like magic, the same shimmering lines sliding from around his hands and along till they disappeared, the door opening and an overjoyed KING diving into his arms in an awkward embrace, the program practically manhandling him down the hall a moment later. "Come on, come on, we've got to get out of here!"

Despite looking like Arthur and sounding like Arthur, till that moment KING really hadn't been very like Arthur at all. The familiar physical pushiness made Merlin feel strangely more at ease with the situation, fleeing with the program without a second thought to where. For a blissful time there was only the physical exertion of him running and sometimes ducking out of the way while KING warded off their pursuers with his disc, Merlin watching amazed when it came back like a boomerang from Hell after it shattered one of the guards into naught but little cubes of light.

***

Very little about the Grid (which Merlin had awkwardly dubbed the computer world in his brain) resembled the real one aside from the programs themselves, and even then they eventually began to straddle the line into that alien place the more of the populace he saw. One of the buggers looked like a light bulb... A LIGHT BULB! But there was little time for him to dwell, KING making him dodge in and out between what appeared to be buildings as they continued to evade the N.I.M.'s guard detail.

Merlin thought they'd never stop running. But then when they were cutting through yet another bizarre, blocky structure, KING pressing him back against the wall suddenly as footsteps approached.

What rounded the corner made Merlin completely stop functioning a moment, baffled utterly as his own face came into view.

It was a program. A program with his face.

"EMRYS!" KING exclaimed, circuits suddenly pulsing with green as he lunged forward, seizing the other program up and spinning them both, jostling Merlin's double enough to knock the helm from his head, a cascade of electric blue hair falling down his back, nearly the same shade as his circuits.

As EMRYS seemed to process the situation he returned the excited embrace, circuits flickering briefly to violet as he held onto the other program. "Oh thank MER-0, you're safe... I'd feared the worst!"

MER-0...

"... no wonder the searches were unsuccessful." Merlin stated dumbly, staring at the two still with wide eyes. "You... you're both...?"

Finally EMRYS took notice of him, brow furrowing deeply as he took in Merlin's features, slowly detaching himself from KING and pushing the golden circuited program behind him, reaching for his disc. "Identify."

"MER-0." Merlin stated back, inclining his head slightly as he looked his program over again, gaze sliding to KING as the cogs worked in his head, things beginning to click into place. "You've been neglecting your duties, program."

EMRYS' circuits flushed violet briefly again, like a ripple on a pond, the blue haired doppelganger looking conflicted before he reached back and tucked KING further behind him, the gold circuited program looking suddenly leery toward Merlin. Sighing at the two of them Merlin just shook his head. "That doesn't matter anymore. We need to find..."

Pursing his lips he looked directly at KING again. "We need to find GON-5."

The program's mouth worked a moment, realization dawning slowly as EMRYS looked between them, slowly going to retrieve his helm and tucking his hair back up into it. "He's...?"

Merlin only nodded, the homebrew Security program grabbing onto EMRYS' hand, looking to him silently. The way they looked at each other made his stomach knot slightly, the brief, quiet moments with Arthur late night on the programming floor slipping to the fore of his mind. He wondered if he was going to get the chance to have more of them with the aggravating man.

"The N.I.M. has established themself near to the core I/O tower. They've been porting high profile prisoners out there on Solar Sailers. We could probably catch one nearby without being detected." EMRYS stated, still eyeing Merlin with a wary expression despite his compliance. "If GON-5 is indeed here they will have him there."

***

The Solar Sailer was certainly an experience.

When KING had gone to calibrate the controls after they'd tossed the N.I.M.'s aligned programs overboard EMRYS had yanked Merlin aside, shocking the programmer by getting in his face. "Don't mistake me. If you really are my User... I will forsake you for him. I will _not_ betray him."

Blinking owlishly in response Merlin found himself tempted to laugh, the absurdity of the thought after the time he'd spent on that side of the screen making continuing on as he had been before, was utterly impossible to think of. How could he forget he made some kind of fearsome discus throwing warrior clone of himself? Or that seemingly... that clone had fallen in love with one of the programs he was supposed to eradicate from the system?

"Rest easy, program." Merlin murmured, peeling EMRYS' iron grip off his bicep. "I won't prompt you to delete him again."

EMRYS looked at him hard a moment or two before seeming satisfied, turning and beating a path back to KING, speaking quietly to the gold circuited program as Merlin looked on.

The softness of his expression was stark against what it'd been mere moments before, Merlin huffing softly to himself and wrenching his helm off, raking his fingers through his dark, short hair as he wondered if he ever made those faces at Arthur.

Grimacing at that train of thought Merlin shook it off and opened his eyes, finding that a much more tender scene was taking place at the controls, EMRYS and KING's hands laced together, their circuits pulsing with violet and green respectively, smiles on their faces and their eyes closed.

Rubbing a hand over his mouth Merlin turned on heel and headed to the opposite end of the Sailer, ignoring the knotting of his stomach as he moved.

***

Merlin didn't really know what to make of the place Arthur was held hostage in, the technicolor jumble of things becoming rather muted when facing a megalomaniacal program version of the company's CEO. EMRYS seemed to take it in stride, immediately jumping in to fight the red circuited Uther while KING pushed Merlin along, the pair of them beating back guards till they made it to the holding cell.

Finding a doppelganger of his adoptive Uncle (aka the COO of Penn Computing) stuck in with a gaggle of familiar faces made Merlin's head begin to hurt, finding Arthur pinned to the wall at the very back by his wrists the only thing keeping his focus.

"Finally..." He breathed, reaching up and cupping his hands over the affixed wrists, Arthur looking baffled by his presence, their faces uncomfortably close.

"Is it... is it really you?" The blonde, blue circuited man asked carefully, looking just a tad hopeful.

"Who else would bail your stupid arse out?" Merlin shot back, the confines dissolving, the programmer shocked briefly as Arthur's arms didn't just fall down but encircled his neck, the man leaning in and kissing him hard.

"Is this...?" KING's voice broke Merlin out of his stupor and made Arthur break the lip lock, the pair looking to the gold circuited program as he approached, looking bashful at the attention despite prompting it. "... are you... GON-5?"

"...KING?" Arthur questioned, his brow furrowing at the sight before him, tensing suddenly in Merlin's arms as he finally figured out his secret was revealed.

Merlin rolled his eyes and flicked the tip of Arthur's nose. "There's not time _for that_. We've got to get out of here."

Shoving Merlin back a little and rubbing his now sore nose his boss gave him a dirty look, KING chuckling awkwardly and moving to break the remaining prisoners out of their bindings with his disc. Taking Arthur gently by the wrist Merlin pulled him toward the doorway, the other prisoners being herded out by the homebrew Security program, the sound of EMRYS clashing with the Uther-faced program clearly heard even at such a distance.

Through a series of mad dashes and frankly bizarre interactions (who could ever get used to a gigantic A.I. with a cylinder face yelling at you??) Merlin and Arthur were practically spat back out of the laser and onto the floor at Dr. Plover's feet, the three of them hurriedly leaving the building just as the Sun was rising.

"Well that certainly was more than enough excitement for me." Guinevere commented as she packed her things into her car, tucking her glasses into her front pocket and offering the pair of them a smile. "I'm glad you're both all right... can't imagine what went on in there."

Arthur and Merlin looked at one another before looking back to the doctor, both awkwardly shrugging and shuffling a bit beneath her scrutiny. It seemed neither felt terribly well after the whole ordeal; Merlin's head was still spinning with the implications of program life... the concept of deletion alone made guilt roll through him.

"Well, I've got to be getting home. You let me know if anything goes on that's odd. I don't want to find out some side effects developed or something and you turned into floppy discs or something ridiculous." Guinevere chirped, opening her driver side door and hopping in with a little wave. "Have a good- well have a good morning, anyway!"

The pair watched her drive away, the silence seemingly stretching on endlessly till Merlin couldn't take it any more.

"...why did you kiss me?"

Arthur let out a disbelieving sounding chuckle. "Are you really that thick?"

Merlin ended up taking him back to his place, the minuscule apartment above the noisy arcade blessedly quiet for once, the operating hours thankfully light years away from them as they stood in the middle of the floor together, ironically palm to palm in almost a direct parallel to how Merlin had caught their programs standing on the Sailer. Leaning in a little the programmer rested his forehead against Arthur's, licking his lips absently as he let his thoughts go wild for a moment.

"Why did you never tell me?"

"What?" Arthur questioned in return, barely audible despite the close quarters.

"About you... knowing how to program. That you were the one who..."

"It's complicated." The blonde sighed, slowly lacing their fingers together. "There's... there are things my father has been doing that I couldn't abide by... but I couldn't get anyone involved. Contacting the authorities would sink the ship... I couldn't ruin so many lives like that. But... the plan I'd worked out... if I can keep it going... I could succeed my father soon if the board finds him to be unfit."

"And you were trying to prove that. With your program wreaking havoc."

Arthur shrugged lightly, meeting Merlin's eyes a moment before looking away again. "There's more to it than that. Step one of many... I never wanted to get anyone else involved. I didn't want anyone else at risk."

Merlin snorted, squeezing the other man's hands gently. "So much for that, clotpole."

"Well... now there's one less obstacle with the N.I.M. deleted." Arthur chuckled, tipping his head up a little and brushing his nose against Merlin's, their lips so close to brushing again the dark haired programmer could practically taste it. "So that's one less thing I need help with..."

"Anything _else_ you need help with?" Merlin asked, tone needlessly suggestive as he looked into the blonde man's eyes, expression clearly saying it all. Arthur burst out laughing a second later, tipping his head back with the outburst.

"Oh god, Merlin, that was just... the worst segue!"

The dark haired programmer just grinned, leaning in and pressing a kiss to the corner of Arthur's mouth. "Shame you've already enabled me, kissing me like some kind of damsel greeting her hero."

Arthur blushed darkly, pulling back a bit and flicking the tip of Merlin's nose. "Don't act so cocky. Maybe if you'd pissed the N.I.M. off first it'd be _me_ saving _you_."

"Unlike you I'm quite charming. I doubt it would've zapped me in on purpose." The programmer chuckled, stepping back into Arthur's space and kissing him softly, the near chaste kiss lingering till the Penn heir cupped Merlin's face, deepening it a few moments before pulling away. Their foreheads together again Merlin felt slightly dazzled, their banter easily forgotten as he looked into Arthur's eyes.

"... take me to bed, Merlin."

Merlin felt fit to melt away beneath the heat of that statement, surging forward and kissing Arthur fervently, walking him awkwardly back till he fell back against his sheets, the blonde propping himself up on his elbows before raising one hand to loosen the knot on his tie.

The dark haired programmer felt as though he was going to burst into flames, the low light and casual grace to that singular motion making it difficult to breathe. Merlin was almost certain this was a dream. It had to be after such a day.

However dreams didn't usually shatter so abruptly by the realization that all he had in the way of protection were the locks on his door and nothing more, the programmer rubbing a hand over his mouth before collapsing down beside the other man. "Oh dammit..."

"What now?" Arthur groaned, clearly exasperated with his dramatic behavior.

"I've only got lube." The programmer whined, pushing his face into the sheets as he bemoaned the ruined moment. "I never have time for things like this so... so..."

"So no rubbers." The blonde sighed, running a gentle hand through Merlin's hair.

Merlin just whined in response.

"Well I'm clean," Arthur shocked him by saying, Merlin raising his head a bit and furrowing his brow at the other man. "And I'd hope you'd be at least a little bit STD free."

"Oi!"

"And as much as I'd love for you to have a go at me I can wait for proper protection... but we still have options."

Somehow those options led to Merlin jerking himself and Arthur off simultaneously, the blonde man fingering himself leisurely as he kissed and bit at the taller man's throat. "God, Merlin... you have no idea... no fucking idea how much I thought about..."

"I might have some idea..." Merlin chuckled, feeling breathless as he watched Arthur's hand move between his legs, the blonde bucking up into the programmer's hand as he worked his shaft.

"I fucking thought of you." Arthur gasped. "I think of you all the time."

"Gods, Arthur, just shut up and kiss me." He moaned, turning his head and trying to catch the chatty brat's lips with his.

He works them to completion like that, kisses deep and slow as Merlin cums over his own fist, Arthur following a scant few seconds later.

Nothing about his day has felt real, but for now he'll accept this moment as reality, Arthur huffing out a happy sigh as he curls into his side.


End file.
